Tank: Arena, library debates need to happen nowBack to video

While some politicians might suggest these two projects loom too far in the future to talk about them now, some decisions will be made over the next four years on both a new downtown arena and a new central library.

Even if those decisions wind up as rejections or postponements, they are still decisions.

The project to build a new downtown library has been around at least a decade, but the library board will start looking at potential sites this fall.

Meanwhile, the SaskTel Centre arena and TCU Place convention centre are teaming up to study the viability of a new downtown arena to replace suburban SaskTel Centre and the possibility of a combined downtown facility.

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That study is due next June and will land in the lap of the city council elected Oct. 26.

Rogers Place, the new $600-million state-of-the-art home of the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, was approved by Edmonton city council in May 2013 and opened three years later.

Nobody’s suggesting such a proposal is imminent in Saskatoon, or the price tag would be similar. But it does show the time frame to approve and build a massive arena project is less than a four-year city council term.

That’s why the conversation needs to start during this election, even if any new arena is 10, 15 or 20 years away.

The debate on the arena boils down to two options.

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Continue to pour more money into 28-year-old SaskTel Centre — undoubtedly the cheaper option, but with little to no return through economic spinoff at its northwest location.

Build an expensive new arena at a downtown location where economic activity is more likely. B.C. architect Gary Marvin, an admittedly biased source who championed a downtown arena 30 years ago, estimates $1 billion in property tax was lost from the decision not to build SaskTel Centre downtown.

The debate on a new library is more complex, but the amount of time and effort spent on this concept shows why these conversations should happen during elections.

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The passive approach to a new downtown library has not produced any results, other than a 50-year-old, outdated downtown branch. Now, some question the long-term future of libraries, which could make a new location, estimated at $80 million to $120 million, a tough sell.

The popularity and success of both SaskTel Centre and the Frances Morrison Public Library could work against them. Why replace a facility that’s working?

A 2014 study showed 73 per cent of survey respondents held a library card, higher than the national average of 66 per cent.

SaskTel Centre hosts many top concert tours and it accommodated sellout crowds during the inaugural championship season of the National Lacrosse League’s Saskatchewan Rush.

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But those who operate both the library and the arena warn they are becoming antiques, despite popularity and success.

Saskatoon’s Mendel Art Gallery was once popular, too. A 2011 study showed the Mendel welcomed 160,000 visitors and indicated its 68 per cent attendance rate by population made it by far the most popular gallery in Canada.

That popularity did not stop Saskatoon city council from voting to shutter the 51-year-old institution in 2015 in favour of building a new gallery five times its size at River Landing.

The Mendel’s appeal was used to help bolster the case for a replacement. So how did that work out?

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Saskatoon could well be without an art gallery for more than two years; the opening date for the new Remai Modern Art Gallery of Saskatchewan has yet to be determined.

When first approved by council — after the 2009 election — the estimated cost of the new gallery project sat at $58 million, an amount that had already grown since the project was first proposed.

That cost has ballooned to more than $106 million and the planned opening in 2014 now looms in the rear-view mirror.

It’s too late to stop or reconsider the Remai Modern, but its bumpy journey should help inform the debate about any new big project.

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